452 REPORT—1904. 
(f) The most remarkable feature of the period was that the region to the 
south of the equator, including South and East Africa, Mauritius, and Australia, 
was similarly affected. 
In India the years 1896 and 1899 were years of severe drought, followed by 
famine over very large areas. The area in which the crops failed more or less 
completely was about 250,000 square miles in extent in 1896 and 500,000 square 
miles in 1899. In the 1899-1900 famine upwards of 6,500,000 people were on 
famine relief for several months. The loss of cattle due to failure of water and 
fodder was very great, numbering many millions. In some districts from 90 to 
95 per cent. of the cattle died off from slow starvation and want of water. In 
New South Wales and Queensland almost continuous drought prevailed from 
1896 to 1902. It is estimated that over fifty millions of sheep, value 12,500,000/., 
were lost in New South Wales during these seven years of drought. 
Mr. Hutchins, Conservator of Forests, Cape Town, states that drought pre- 
vailed more or less persistently over the Karoo region in South Africa from 1896 
to 1908, and that cattle and sheep perished by millions. He also states that the 
drought extended to British Central Africa from 1898 to 1903. 
The previous statements evidence the continuity, extension, and intensity of the 
drought. 
The Nile floods followed very closely the variations of the rainfall in Western 
India. The floods of the years 1899 and 1901 were both amongst the lowest on 
record, This shows that the rainfall in the Abyssinian region was more or less 
generally in defect during the period and most largely in the years 1899 and 1901, 
when the rainfall of the Bombay current was very deficient. 
Hence, as a general inference, the period 1895-1902 was characterised by 
more or less persistent deficiency of rainfall over practically the whole Indo- 
oceanic area (including Abyssinia). The economic results in the dry interior 
districts of India, South Africa, and Australia were the same—large loss of cattle 
and great loss of capital. The drought in Southern Asia was as marked in the 
north-east as in the south-west monsoon, and hence the variation was not 
seasonal but general. 
The variations of temperature, humidity, and cloud in India during the whole 
period were large and in direct accordance with the rainfall. In other words, 
during the period 1892-94 the air was damper, with lower temperature than usual 
and cloud above the normal. On the other hand, from 1895 to 1902 temperature 
was steadily in excess, cloud less than usual, and humidity below the normal. 
The most remarkable variation was that of the solar radiation as indicated by 
observations of the solar radiation thermometer (black bulb zm vacuo). 
The most interesting feature of the meteorology of the period 1892-1902 is 
that the variations of the solar insolation are the inverse of those which might 
have been expected from the cloud and humidity data. In other words, solar 
radiation was in excess in the period of increased humidity and cloud, and in 
defect during the greater part of the period of drought, decreased humidity, and 
cloud. The series of eight curves exhibited, out of a larger number prepared from 
the data of a number of stations in India at which these observations are 
carefully recorded, show the most important facts, and indicate that there was a 
continuous decrease of insolation on the average of all stations from 1891 to 1902. 
The curves for Aden, Calcutta, and Leh, it will be seen, agree in their most 
important features. The observations are quite concordant and probably represent 
a most important feature of the period. They indicate either a continuous and 
considerable decrease of emission of solar energy during the period, or unusually 
large absorption in the upper atmosphere. In order to decide this question 
comparison is necessary with similar data for other large areas, as, for example, 
Europe and North America, It is, however, clear that in India the insolation 
data of this unique period are of exceptional interest and value. 
The preceding statements have shown that variations of rainfall for prolonged 
periods similar in character have occurred, and may hence occur again, over the very 
laree area including the Southern Asian peninsulas, East and South Africa, 
